France Votes to Continue Air Strikes Against ISIS in Iraq
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iStock/Thinkstock(PARIS) — France’s lower parliament voted Tuesday to continue bombing raids against Islamic State targets in the wake of last week’s deadly terrorist attacks in Paris that left 20 people dead, including the three gunmen.
Before the vote by the National Assembly, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls noted that France was at war with Islamic extremists, not Islam itself.
Separately, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian declared that the Islamic State “is an international army that has to be wiped out and that is why we are part of the coalition.”
One of last week’s attackers, Amedi Coulibaly, demanded that France end its military operations against ISIS in a video posted after he was killed by police last Friday.
Said Kouachi, and his brother, Cherif, killed 12 people in their operation against Charlie Hebdo before they were later gunned down by police. Said Kouachi has been linked to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Some French investigators believe that as many as 10 people belonged to the terrorist cell that organized the Paris attacks, with six believed to be at large.
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